Main reason for insurance

[Gracie115]

Haven't read every post here but along with GeoBlue we NEVER travel without MedJet evacuation coverage.  MedJet will get us home.  It is inexpensive and well worth every penny.  We had friends that were stranded on Lanzarote without proper evacuation coverage and cost them over $120,000 to get home.  MedJet would have gotten them home. 

[Z'Loth]

When I book a cruise through the travel agency offered through my auto club, I always book the travel insurance right there and then through the insurance provider offered which is NOT through the cruise line. The biggest concern for me, however unlikely it is, is the medical evacuation back to the United States which can easily run into the six figures, followed by medical coverage while overseas. The other items covered in a travel policy would be "damn annoying", and would hurt slightly financially. 

[honmani2]

It all comes down to acceptable risk.  I get insurance to cover medical evacuation and medical coverage but not for trip cancellation since I'm willing to forego the cost of the cruise if something should happen before the cruise.

[the penguins]

8 hours ago, honmani2 said:

It all comes down to acceptable risk.  I get insurance to cover medical evacuation and medical coverage but not for trip cancellation since I'm willing to forego the cost of the cruise if something should happen before the cruise.

Wow - not a risk we are prepared to take. In October I collapsed at home just as we were leaving to board the ship. Cruise cancellation was 100% all paid by our insurance. Better still most of the cruise had been paid for using FCC's and the insurance paid out in real money. 

[alyssamma]

On 3/14/2023 at 6:06 PM, phoenix_dream said:

I can't answer for him obviously, but I can tell you what we do.  We buy the GeoBlue policy only.  We have some amount of general travel coverage through our credit card, as well as some medical coverage in our Medicare Advantage plan.  Why do we not buy cruise or other general travel insurance?  A personal decision of course.  As I stated, our credit card provides some benefits.  Beyond that we take the risk.  We have taken close to 80 cruises total so far.  Had we bought travel insurance for each of those trips it would have cost us WAY more than any expenses we might encounter if something goes wrong with one of our cruises.  It is not the right choice for everyone and it depends on many personal factors.  Having worked for an insurance company for 30 years (not a travel one, but general principles the same) I learned that insurance companies make lots of profit with people buying unnecessary, or excessive insurance.  Again, not everyone has the same situation and for some it makes sense.  I just urge people to evaluate all factors before deciding.

I agree 100% with this. However, we do buy trip insurance simply for peace of mind. If I add up what I've paid for insurance over the years it far outweighs what the policies have paid me. I've only had to use it once (and my daughter used it once). The cost for most trips I take is approximately $200, so for not having to stress out about things I just buy it.

 

GeoBlue is health insurance only, right? Or am I missing something? If so, is this supplemental to your normal health insurance? Trying to understand exactly what this does.

 

Also, I see several posts about annual policies. It's my understanding they only cover X amount of dollars, and is usually less than the trip cost. If this is correct, why spend money on this? Again, I think I'm missing something...

 

[Dar & Bob]

41 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

 

Also, I see several posts about annual policies. It's my understanding they only cover X amount of dollars, and is usually less than the trip cost. If this is correct, why spend money on this? Again, I think I'm missing something...

 

The policy we took out for $1100 for both of us covers up to $10K of costs.  Our upcoming trip with airfare is costing more than that, however I know the cruise lines and airlines are good about working with passengers but that anything over that is at risk.

That said, it also covered completely our January cruise and any other travel more than 90 miles away from home.   Had I taken insurance just for our upcoming cruise it was $980 and not nearly the medical coverage we have on our annual policy.  

For us it's about limiting the "unknown" costs that can occur vs what we have spent already.  Although it would be unpleasant, we can "afford" to lose what we have already paid out.  It would start to affect our lifestyle to have to pay out $100K or more in addition to the cost of the trip.

[alyssamma]

2 minutes ago, Dar & Bob said:

The policy we took out for $1100 for both of us covers up to $10K of costs.  Our upcoming trip with airfare is costing more than that, however I know the cruise lines and airlines are good about working with passengers but that anything over that is at risk.

That said, it also covered completely our January cruise and any other travel more than 90 miles away from home.   Had I taken insurance just for our upcoming cruise it was $980 and not nearly the medical coverage we have on our annual policy.  

For us it's about limiting the "unknown" costs that can occur vs what we have spent already.  Although it would be unpleasant, we can "afford" to lose what we have already paid out.  It would start to affect our lifestyle to have to pay out $100K or more in addition to the cost of the trip.

This makes sense. I guess, ultimately, it is about the economics of the situation. The insurance I get also varies by age (much cheaper for my daughter to get, much more expensive for my mother in law).

 

I just too out a $10K policy for an upcoming trip and it cost $340 for me and my wife. Another $8K trip, $245, and a $2K trip for $80. For reference, I'm 57 and my wife is 59. 

[TeeRick]

58 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

I agree 100% with this. However, we do buy trip insurance simply for peace of mind. If I add up what I've paid for insurance over the years it far outweighs what the policies have paid me. I've only had to use it once (and my daughter used it once). The cost for most trips I take is approximately $200, so for not having to stress out about things I just buy it.

 

GeoBlue is health insurance only, right? Or am I missing something? If so, is this supplemental to your normal health insurance? Trying to understand exactly what this does.

 

Also, I see several posts about annual policies. It's my understanding they only cover X amount of dollars, and is usually less than the trip cost. If this is correct, why spend money on this? Again, I think I'm missing something...

 

Yes GeoBlue is an annual policy that is supplemental health insurance for international travel (multiple land trips and cruises).

[kearney]

We usually schedule cruises more than 90 days apart. In the past I have bought an annual plan which is better for medical coverage and lighter on trip cancelation. My thought process was that if something happened and I needed to use the insurance... I could still cancel my next cruise before final payment. I have only had to use insurance once and it more than paid for itself...  And since I am now 70+, I would never cruise without it.

[calicakes]

I'm 56, wife is 61.  We have never taken the insurance.  This year we purchased a yearly policy as we have 8 trips scheduled( 2 cruises, the rest by air). My wife came down with HORRENDOUS food poisoning ( bad Chinese food) the night before a Feb 2022 cruise( on Oceania).   She didn't want to take the cruise.  She was pooping and vomiting hours before we had to drive to the port.  I said " We don't have insurance and we're not losing 10k".  Suck it up.  I told her she'd be better in 24hrs.  We took the cruise and she was better the next day.  She didn't eat anything for almost 24hrs.  I think if we had insurance, we might have cancelled.  

[CarrieAP]

Something learned on our last cruise. Had to visit ship’s medical for pneumonia. Have a Medicare advantage policy through Excellus. They declined all my medications, stating Medicare doesn’t cover meds purchased out of country. About $500 so could have been worse. Will make sure I carry supplemental plan that covers medical as primary from now on. Just easier. 

[frito58]

Well I can give 18k reasons to have insurance 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️, had a heart event on the Apex in Europe. Saying that probably wouldn’t take Celebrity insurance ever again. Even there own people have no freaking clue what it is . I spent 2 days below in medical they said my insurance was travel only lol . They only sell one kind . Took me off the ship long story longer after all was said done 18k worth bills flights hospital, their cost hotels and took almost 4 months running  in circles they sent me 3 checks paid in full. I now have Geoblue yearly insurance. 

[calicakes]

On 3/18/2023 at 12:10 PM, Gracie115 said:

Haven't read every post here but along with GeoBlue we NEVER travel without MedJet evacuation coverage.  MedJet will get us home.  It is inexpensive and well worth every penny.  We had friends that were stranded on Lanzarote without proper evacuation coverage and cost them over $120,000 to get home.  MedJet would have gotten them home. 

GeoBlue won't get you home?  They will only get you to a hospital? 

[Gracie115]

13 minutes ago, calicakes said:

GeoBlue won't get you home?  They will only get you to a hospital? 

No, they won't get you home.  Many medical policies have "evacuation" coverage but there are many caveats attached.  Our friends thought they were covered because their policy had "evacuation coverage" but ONLY if the insurance company felt it was medically necessary.  She had a shattered hip with several breaks and needed surgery and her insurance said she just do that in Lanzarote rather then get her home to her own doctors.  Medjet would have gotten her home.

[TeeRick]

1 hour ago, Gracie115 said:

No, they won't get you home.  Many medical policies have "evacuation" coverage but there are many caveats attached.  Our friends thought they were covered because their policy had "evacuation coverage" but ONLY if the insurance company felt it was medically necessary.  She had a shattered hip with several breaks and needed surgery and her insurance said she just do that in Lanzarote rather then get her home to her own doctors.  Medjet would have gotten her home.

What was her primary insurance?  They would come into this before GeoBlue.  Same with MedJet I believe.  It goes to the primary insurance first.

[Iamthesea]

On 3/14/2023 at 8:27 AM, Cruising Is Bliss said:

One of the HAL world cruise bloggers is currently in intensive care in Port Louis, Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean.

Yikes!  Do you have a link? Very sad. 😥

On 3/17/2023 at 11:36 PM, lov2sun said:

FYI…even with travel insurance and my own personal insurance , we were required to settle the outrageous $5k bill for 6 hrs observationin ships hospital before I could be transferred to hospital upon arrival in port. 

So please be cautioned to have some extra cash or credit available to you in case of emergency, as they were not going to let my husband off ship to join me at hospital without settling the bill. 
insurance reimbursed after the fact, but the ship wanted payment up front. 
 

Was your insurance Primary coverage?  We book Primary so that a bill is paid upfront by the insurance company.

 

BTW- Be sure and check your policy, dates and cost that you covered!   After reading this thread, I checked out our policy information for an overseas cruise coming up in May.  I realize that we had changed our flight plans AFTER purchasing the insurance.  We are now flying over a day ahead of what we had planned, and flying home 2 days later than the date information on the policy.  I need to call insurance company and have those dates changed.  Hope they will do it.  It's Travel Insured LX.   Also, the trip was covered for $8,000 ($7,500 for cruise, and the rest misc.  for any non-refundable excursions), but we recently upgraded the stateroom and now our cost are $8,600 just for the cruise portion.  I will have to raise the coverage to $9,000. 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Iamthesea

[Loracpin2]

On 3/19/2023 at 10:06 AM, Z'Loth said:

The biggest concern for me, however unlikely it is, is the medical evacuation back to the United States which can easily run into the six figures, followed by medical coverage while overseas.

These are is the biggest concerns for us as well!!! No matter what the destination, whether we're travelling by land or sea, we never travel without insurance. 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Loracpin2
addition

[Gracie115]

3 hours ago, TeeRick said:

What was her primary insurance?  They would come into this before GeoBlue.  Same with MedJet I believe.  It goes to the primary insurance first.

 

BC/BS, they did not have Geo Blue.  

 

We do have Geo Blue, but we also carry MedJet.  It's just much more reassuring to KNOW that you can get home rather quickly rather than depend on an insurance company to wade through the fine print and find reason NOT to get you home.

 

At $375.00 total for both of us for AARP members annually it's well worth it to us for the peace of mind it provides.   

Edited March 21, 2023 by Gracie115

[d9704011]

3 hours ago, TeeRick said:

What was her primary insurance?  They would come into this before GeoBlue.  Same with MedJet I believe.  It goes to the primary insurance first.

Medical insurance has many limitations when it comes to 'medical evacuation'.  Although I am not a member of Medjet Assist (which is not an insurance policy), I do believe there is much more flexibilty on getting home if you need/want to.  Here is the fist thing they say on their website:

 

Hospital to Hospital Medical Transfer for member regardless of Medical Necessity, COVID-19 Info HERE

[phoenix_dream]

1 hour ago, d9704011 said:

Medical insurance has many limitations when it comes to 'medical evacuation'.  Although I am not a member of Medjet Assist (which is not an insurance policy), I do believe there is much more flexibilty on getting home if you need/want to.  Here is the fist thing they say on their website:

 

Hospital to Hospital Medical Transfer for member regardless of Medical Necessity, COVID-19 Info HERE

Medjet Assist is absolutely an insurance policy. Its just a different kind of insurance you are buying. I agree it provides much more in the way of evacuation coverage but it is definitely insurance.

[phoenix_dream]

23 hours ago, calicakes said:

I'm 56, wife is 61.  We have never taken the insurance.  This year we purchased a yearly policy as we have 8 trips scheduled( 2 cruises, the rest by air). My wife came down with HORRENDOUS food poisoning ( bad Chinese food) the night before a Feb 2022 cruise( on Oceania).   She didn't want to take the cruise.  She was pooping and vomiting hours before we had to drive to the port.  I said " We don't have insurance and we're not losing 10k".  Suck it up.  I told her she'd be better in 24hrs.  We took the cruise and she was better the next day.  She didn't eat anything for almost 24hrs.  I think if we had insurance, we might have cancelled.  

So you completely lied on the health questionnaire before boarding? And doing so with no way of knowing for sure if she had food poisoning or norovirus which could have infected hundreds on your sailing? Nice.

[d9704011]

23 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

Medjet Assist is absolutely an insurance policy. Its just a different kind of insurance you are buying. I agree it provides much more in the way of evacuation coverage but it is definitely insurance.

No, it is not an insurance company and is not selling an insurance product/policy.  It is a membership program offering medical evacuation service(s).

[Cruising Is Bliss]

13 hours ago, Iamthesea said:

Yikes!  Do you have a link? Very sad. 😥

 

He was hospitalized for several weeks but he's doing so much better. His latest post he and his wife had made it to Seattle and were waiting for a flight to their home in Sitka.  He said the blood transfusions he got on the ship probably saved his life. Here's his first post after his Feb 28th hospitalization on the ship. His posts are interesting reading on what happens when you need medical attention in the middle of nowhere.

 

https://rich.mcclear.net/2023/03/05/well-at-least-this-time-we-made-it-past-fremantle/

 

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by Cruising Is Bliss

[TeeRick]

15 hours ago, d9704011 said:

Medical insurance has many limitations when it comes to 'medical evacuation'.  Although I am not a member of Medjet Assist (which is not an insurance policy), I do believe there is much more flexibilty on getting home if you need/want to.  Here is the fist thing they say on their website:

 

Hospital to Hospital Medical Transfer for member regardless of Medical Necessity, COVID-19 Info HERE

Thanks.  I priced out the lowest membership (annual) at $425.  More than GeoBlue Trekker ($250), which offers a global health network and evacuation.  People should evaluate both perhaps and decide.  I don't think that I personally would purchase both unless I traveled extensively. 

[the penguins]

15 hours ago, d9704011 said:

No, it is not an insurance company and is not selling an insurance product/policy.  It is a membership program offering medical evacuation service(s).

Interesting as the website states that all it's services are underwritten by Lloyd's of London.